suggestion: engine upgrades slow fleet progress

[DrunkenRine]

when i started playing the game, i always upgraded my enginges first, because i thought this would give me an edge over the pursuing fleet and thus more time to squeeze scrap out of the sector. later i realized, that it doesnt make a difference upgrading your engines, that the fleet progresses always at the same rate (if not in hidden in nebula or due to mercenaries).

i would suggest you decrease the fleet advancement by a percentage for every engine upgrade. lets say 5%. with engines 8, you would have a decent ammount of 40% slower fleet advancement.

this could come in with the achievement: Explorer (scout an entire sector without getting caught by the fleet).

but i could imagine this would be hard to balance, not to make it the only viable option to upgrade your engines asap to max scrap collection and winning chances.

[ExtraCheesyPie]

This not only makes no sense, but its incredibly game breaking. Dodge chance and FTL charge is good enough of a reward.

[UltraMantis]

I doubt it's possible to scout an entire sector. The engine upgrades explain what they do, and the difference is pretty important. FTL recharge is a great boon when you face a ship that is much stronger and the evasion bonuses not only allow the ship to dodge better, it also automatically improves your engineer and helmsman whenever they dodge succesfully. Their skills stack with the engine making early engine upgrades a very usefull investment, since you'll be dodgning all kinds of nasty shots much earlier.

For balance reasons it wouldn't really work. There are still ways to slow down the fleet, namely the nebulas and the occasional event where you can pay some scrap to have the Rebels search delayed.

[Hoa_Binh]

I would think that this is not something that is likely to happen, such a big change of an already released game isn't likely to happen. It would unbalance the game and also be very hard to justify doing anything but upgrading engines to max at the start. More time in sectors equals more loot.

[mqstout]

http://ftlwiki.com/wiki/Systems#Engines

This says it already does it, but I have not tested this to verify.

[UltraMantis]

http://ftlwiki.com/wiki/Systems#Engines

This says it already does it, but I have not tested this to verify.

False. Rate of Rebel fleet advancement is fixed.

[barsooma]

Wow, I always though it helped you outrun the fleet as well!
The upgrades should really say something other than FTL: ??x, I assumed that meant your FTL jumps were that much faster.
I guess that's a legacy from my days in Infinite Space.

[Number43]

FTL recharge is important if you end up in a fight you can't win. It's also helpful in leaving solar flares faster if there's no enemy ship.

The real reason to upgrade engines though is for the dodge chance.